E Machine Help

[LASVEGASGRANDMA]

Hi - I have an E MAchine T2642 - I run Quick Books - 2005 and 2006 versions on my machine - Lately I get warning messages saying Disk Space is low - I check and it says no more room - I reboot and I have lots of space available - but then it does the same thing again - What can I do to fix this - and it seems to be slowing down more and more

Thank You

 

[AMDIsTheBest010]

Well, sounds like you're running out of RAM during windows sessions. It goes away when you reboot, b/c when windows restarts, it clears everything out of RAM. How much RAM do you have? if you're running WinXP, then you want about 512MB to run well, and preferably 1024MB to really let it stretch its legs. Please list you're system specs, and then i can assist you better.

...AMD

 

[Rik]

Running scandisk may be a good idea too!!!!!

AMDIsTheBest010, i like yer quote!!

 

[Tedster]

if you have less than 512mb that XP does not run well. Adding memory preferably 1GB is a wise investment. If your actual hard disk space is low, adding a bigger drive or a second one is also wise.

 

[Tmagic650]

One thing about Emachines is that you can take the model number and find the specs.

For the T2642:

CPU: Intel® Celeron® 2.60GHz Processor
(28KB L2 cache & 400MHz FS)
Operating System: Genuine Microsoft® Windows® XP Home
Chipset: Intel® 845GV chipset
Memory: 256MB DDR (PC 2100)
Hard Drive: 40GB HDD
Optical Drive: 48x Max. CD-RW Drive; 3.5" 1.44MB FDD
Video: Intel® Extreme Graphics 3D
64MB Shared memory
Sound: AC '97 Audio
Network: 10/100Mbps built-in Ethernet
Modem: 56K ITU v.92-ready Fax/Modem
Peripherals: Standard Multimedia Keyboard, 2-Button Wheel Mouse, Standard Stereo Speakers
Ports/Other: 6 USB 2.0 ports (2 on front), 1 Serial, 1 Parallel, 2 PS/2, Audio-In & Out
Dimensions: 7.25"W x 14.125"H x 16"D

Increasing the System RAM would be good. I'm sure any PC2100 DDR would work. I wouldn't be that surprized if the motherboard was on it's way out though

 

[dmill89]

More ram is a definite and a larger HDD wouldn't hurt (40GB is a bit low these days). I also recomend you replace the cheap powersupply before it frys the motherboard.

Here are some recomendations
ram:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820144001
Hard Drive (if you want one):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822148103
Powersupply (I recomend every E-machines owner replaces the poorquality stock PSU):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817103463
or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817104901

 

[Tmagic650]

With 256MB and 64MB being shared for video, this leaves only 192MB for the system under Windows XP... pretty weak

 

[MetalX]

One thing about Emachines is that you can take the model number and find the specs.

For the T2642:

CPU: Intel® Celeron® 2.60GHz Processor
(28KB L2 cache & 400MHz FS)
Operating System: Genuine Microsoft® Windows® XP Home
Chipset: Intel® 845GV chipset
Memory: 256MB DDR (PC 2100)
Hard Drive: 40GB HDD
Optical Drive: 48x Max. CD-RW Drive; 3.5" 1.44MB FDD
Video: Intel® Extreme Graphics 3D
64MB Shared memory
Sound: AC '97 Audio
Network: 10/100Mbps built-in Ethernet
Modem: 56K ITU v.92-ready Fax/Modem
Peripherals: Standard Multimedia Keyboard, 2-Button Wheel Mouse, Standard Stereo Speakers
Ports/Other: 6 USB 2.0 ports (2 on front), 1 Serial, 1 Parallel, 2 PS/2, Audio-In & Out
Dimensions: 7.25"W x 14.125"H x 16"D

Increasing the System RAM would be good. I'm sure any PC2100 DDR would work. I wouldn't be that surprized if the motherboard was on it's way out though

lol i knew celerons were garbage but... 28kb L2?!?!? now THATS horrible.

 

[sw123]

Might as well get a new comp, preferably a build to run those things. Or you could spend MORE money and upgrade it to make it work better.

 

[Tmagic650]

$175 is not all that much to spend on an Emachines upgrade for hard drive, power supply and memory. I have found the most Emachines owners thought that they were getting a great deal. This is just one more justification for that saying "you get what you pay for"...

 

[SNGX1275]

Nobody else is concerned that she gets a disk space low warning and it goes away after reboot?

Do you guys ever try to solve problems? Or is this just a place to get people to spend money on new hardware? This has nothing to do with the amount of RAM in the computer, nor does it have anything to do with the cache size of a Celeron D processor. Also 40 gigs is plenty of hard drive space for someone that doesn't game, or store a multi thousand song collection of mp3s, or lots of movies.

Sounds like a program is writing a bunch of temp files to the disk, and those are getting deleted on reboot. If things are working correctly this doesn't happen, but if some sort of malware is involved that could explain this.

Another explanation could be ridicously large temp from web browsing.. but that seems unlikely.

I recommend a full scan from trend micro's house call: http://housecall.trendmicro.com/ . Then running hijack this.

Check out the Security forum for help with hijackthis.

 

[dmill89]

many of us thought ram because with ram lacking windows will use an excessive amount of virtual memory and swap space which could eat up the already small HDD (especially if it's already near capacity) and this space would be cleared as the system restarted. I agree it could possibly be malware but low ram could also be the cause.

 

[howard_hopkinso]

I agree with SNGX1275. It wouldn`t be a bad idea to check for viruses/spyware/malware etc.

Go HERE and follow the instructions exactly.

Post a fresh HJT and Ewido log into this thread, only after doing the above.

If it turns out to be virus/spyware related, I`ll move this thread to the appropriate forum. If it`s not virus/spyware related, then we`ll have to look at other possibilities.

Regards Howard :wave: :wave:

 

[Tmagic650]

Nobody else is concerned that she gets a disk space low warning and it goes away after reboot?

Do you guys ever try to solve problems? Or is this just a place to get people to spend money on new hardware? This has nothing to do with the amount of RAM in the computer, nor does it have anything to do with the cache size of a Celeron D processor. Also 40 gigs is plenty of hard drive space for someone that doesn't game, or store a multi thousand song collection of mp3s, or lots of movies.

Sounds like a program is writing a bunch of temp files to the disk, and those are getting deleted on reboot. If things are working correctly this doesn't happen, but if some sort of malware is involved that could explain this.

Another explanation could be ridicously large temp from web browsing.. but that seems unlikely.

I recommend a full scan from trend micro's house call: http://housecall.trendmicro.com/ . Then running hijack this.

Check out the Security forum for help with hijackthis.

I doubt is anyone who owns an Emachines computer even knows what a "HJT and Ewido" log is... I'm surprized that some Emachines owners report having no problems after 2 or 3 years of use. All the Emachines systems I have woked on in the last year (about 15 or so) have either been totally replaced or have had their motherboards and power supplies replaced. I will not replace an Emachines motherboard with another Emachines motherboard. I will buy a mini-ATX Foxconn or Biostar MB for replacement. I have been able to reuse the CPU's and memory.

And remember SNGX1275,
this IS an Emachines system we are talking about. Have you really bothered to read some of the many posts here regarding Emachines? I sincerely doubt it!

 

[SNGX1275]

I realize that emachines have a reputation for being problematic. But decreasing free space until a reboot isn't related to what brand of motherboard it has in it. Its a software issue.

 

[Tmagic650]

I realize that emachines have a reputation for being problematic. But decreasing free space until a reboot isn't related to what brand of motherboard it has in it. Its a software issue.

For most systems this would be true, but because this is Emachines, I do think the motherboard or the hard drive might be failing. It could also be the memory. I have had a lot of experience with Emachines unfortunately

 

[tifc8lraz]

One thing about Emachines is that you can take the model number and find the specs.

For the T2642:

CPU: Intel® Celeron® 2.60GHz Processor
(28KB L2 cache & 400MHz FS)
Operating System: Genuine Microsoft® Windows® XP Home
Chipset: Intel® 845GV chipset
Memory: 256MB DDR (PC 2100)
Hard Drive: 40GB HDD
Optical Drive: 48x Max. CD-RW Drive; 3.5" 1.44MB FDD
Video: Intel® Extreme Graphics 3D
64MB Shared memory
Sound: AC '97 Audio
Network: 10/100Mbps built-in Ethernet
Modem: 56K ITU v.92-ready Fax/Modem
Peripherals: Standard Multimedia Keyboard, 2-Button Wheel Mouse, Standard Stereo Speakers
Ports/Other: 6 USB 2.0 ports (2 on front), 1 Serial, 1 Parallel, 2 PS/2, Audio-In & Out
Dimensions: 7.25"W x 14.125"H x 16"D

Increasing the System RAM would be good. I'm sure any PC2100 DDR would work. I wouldn't be that surprized if the motherboard was on it's way out though

Is 28KB of L2 Cache even possible for the Celeron or is that the L1 Cache?

 

[dmill89]

That is L1 the standard L1 cache on intel's (excludeing the core 2Duo) is 12KB +16KB for a total of 28KB this applies to P4s as well as celerons. Celerons have 128KB or 256KB L2 cache depending on the particular model of processer.

 

[Tmagic650]

That doesn't look right to me either. Emachines use standard processors, but sub-standard motherboards and power supplies. People say that the power supplies have no over-voltage or no over-current protection. In fact they do have this protection, but it doesn't work too well if at all. Has anyone heard the term "seconds" when it comes to component parts. This means that they may or may not work... cheap, cheap!

 

[wolfram]

That is L1 the standard L1 cache on intel's (excludeing the core 2Duo) is 12KB +16KB for a total of 28KB this applies to P4s as well as celerons. Celerons have 128KB or 256KB L2 cache depending on the particular model of processer.

Didn't Celeron's D have 16 KB of L1 cache?

 

[dmill89]

Didn't Celeron's D have 16 KB of L1 cache?

nope 12K instruction + 16K data for a total of 28KB of L1 cache.

 

[tifc8lraz]

I had a Celeron 330, and I'm pretty sure that it had 28KB of L1 Cache.

 

[AMDIsTheBest010]

Nobody else is concerned that she gets a disk space low warning and it goes away after reboot?

Do you guys ever try to solve problems? Or is this just a place to get people to spend money on new hardware?[QUOTE/]

you know what? you make me very mad. I tried to help her, as did other people and you come in here and ruin it all. the reason i told her to get more RAM, is b/c that happened to me whn i only had 256MB in my old HP. so stop yelling at people just becuase they dont give a perfect answer in your opinion! Just stop, you think you're all that just b/c you're a "top techspot person" and you think that you're better than all of us.

...AMD

 

[Tmagic650]

Yes AMDIsTheBest010,
sometimes people have to be knocked in the head to listen or read properly. This Emachines uses generic DDR PC2100 RAM and it will run fine with a single stick of 512MB. I think the board has 2 slots and a total of 1GB can be installed. I know who makes the motherboard but I can't remember the name right now. It starts with a K though. Never heard of the make. Emachines want's $159 plus shipping! Yes they are crazy... A mini-ATX replacement board can cost as little a $45, and with a personal copy of XP, you can be up and running solidly in no time. And its no surprize that the Emachines restore discs are junk

 

[SNGX1275]

Nobody else is concerned that she gets a disk space low warning and it goes away after reboot?

Do you guys ever try to solve problems? Or is this just a place to get people to spend money on new hardware?

you know what? you make me very mad. I tried to help her, as did other people and you come in here and ruin it all. the reason i told her to get more RAM, is b/c that happened to me whn i only had 256MB in my old HP. so stop yelling at people just becuase they dont give a perfect answer in your opinion! Just stop, you think you're all that just b/c you're a "top techspot person" and you think that you're better than all of us.

...AMD

Well sorry I make you mad. You tried to help yes. But her post said "Lately I get warning messages saying Disk Space is low - I check and it says no more room - I reboot and I have lots of space available". You told her to get more RAM, then soon after this thread turned into a more RAM and eMachines are crap thread. And what the hell is this TMagic650 saying I need to be knocked in the head to read or listen properly? I read the initial post perfectly, it appears nobody is really trying to solve what is wrong, and suggesting new parts, if not a new computer.

So I don't know why anyone is upset at me for pointing out that you guys are chasing the wrong problem, or at least not logically backing it up. Just because Tmagic650 sees a lot of broken eMachines doesn't mean that the power supply or the motherboard on this one is bad. Put some logic and explanations behind why if you are going to make suggestions that something seemingly unrelated is causing the problems. Tie them together somehow.

The only way I can think of for RAM to tie into this problem at all is if she has less than about 700 megs of free space initially then opens up programs with a dynamically set page file which wants to increase the swap file size. But I don't think that is likely based on it being a 40 gig hard drive being used apparently by a grandma.

It doesn't really matter anyway, LASVEGASGRANDMA probably never came back to the page to check the replies.